Half of the world’s seven billion people currently live in cities, one billion of them in informal settlements; the United Nations projects that the global urban population will expand to as many as five billion over the next two decades. As a result of failing rural economies, conflicts, material inequalities, gentrification, and other urban development programs, people are moving into, out of, and through cities in search of profit, protection, and passage elsewhere.

The future of Earth's environment will be decided in Asia, home to 60 percent of the world's population and some of the world's fastest-growing economies. Journalists play a key role in informing audiences about the future and current state of the environment and what can be done to protect it. Yet, in a time when environmental issues have never been more pressing, media coverage remains constrained. Thousands of journalists are working to correct the imbalance, making great efforts to cover the environment in the face of obstacles from governments, corporations, criminal elements, and even their own editors.
Join us for a panel discussion with environmental journalism leaders Imelda Abano (Philippines), IGG Maha Adi (Indonesia); Joydeep Gupta (India); and Lican Liu (China); they will discuss their work as reporters and the actions they have taken to support environmental journalism in their countries and region.

On April 26, the Tokyo District Court is expected to hand down a ruling in the case of Ichiro Ozawa, accused of breaking electoral finance law. The Ozawa case, likely to end in the acquittal of the veteran lawmaker, resulted in his resignation as head of the Democratic Party of Japan just as he was poised to become the nation’s prime minister. Critics of the case have charged that this raises serious questions about the relationship between the courts and the political world in Japan. Scholars of legal practice in Northeast Asia have noted that other judiciaries in the region have also assumed a more active political role in recent decades. The courts were key actors, for example, in Taiwan’s movements towards democratization, but more recently have been accused of meddling in the island’s politics by convicting former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian on bribery charges. In Korea, meanwhile, judges have been actively involved in discussions about such issues as relocation of the capital, which have traditionally been dealt with in the political realm. Do such cases constitute a “judicialization” of politics in Northeast Asian countries, and if so, what are the ramifications for democratic rule in these nations?